A DECISION to cap this year’s budget for Surrey’s policing means taxpayers will be re-billed and cutbacks affecting frontline officers look inevitable.

Surrey Police Authority (SPA), which manages the finances of the county’s force, will now face costs of £2.8m - labelling the action “irrational and unreasonable” - and is prepared to go through the courts to battle the decision made by Local Government Minister John Healey.

Mr Healey had warned in March that capping was a prospect after the police authority set a 7% rise in its share of council tax.

Now, subject to House of Commons approval, that threat will become a reality, with a lower council tax set for 2009-10 and taxpayers re-billed.

Some £1.6m will be returned to Surrey households, at a rate of six pence a week for the average Band D property, with the process also incurring an additional cost of £1.2m to the police authority.

This is money which would otherwise fund frontline policing, SPA said, having earlier suggested 80 jobs would go if the government carried out its capping threat. These would be on top of 144 job cuts already being made at Surrey Police.

Guildford MP Anne Milton has criticised the action, and the SPA said the government had shown a “complete lack of transparency” and left it “operating in the dark” by declining requests to meet to discuss capping procedures.

“In the current economic climate, to require us to spend £1.2m in order to return £1.6m to the taxpayer is indefensible,” a spokesman said.

“It is with great reluctance that we will therefore begin a process of judicial review to challenge this decision through the courts.

“In the meantime, Chief Constable Mark Rowley is planning for cuts that will inevitably hit the frontline [staffing].

“We remain resolute in our determination to do everything in our power to protect the high standard of policing that Surrey currently receives, and we will explore every option available to us to do so.”

SPA members did meet ministers last month to try to justify the rise in the share of council tax beyond the recommended limit, but Mr Healey said on Wednesday: “In this tough economic climate, council tax payers are rightly looking to their local authorities to provide good value for money and keep council tax bills down.”

He added the “overwhelming majority of authorities have done just that”, and said the capping action “should send a message loud and clear to all authorities – that the government will take tough action to protect council taxpayers".

“There is simply no excuse for excessive council tax increases,” he said.